Sonic Superstars Producer Talks About Why It Won’t Have Zones From Older 2D Sonic Games

gamingbolt.com:

According to series producer Takashi Iizuka, Sonic Superstars will feature zones and levels we haven’t really seen before in older 2D Sonic titles. In an interview with IGN, Iizuka talks about leaving classic levels from the franchise, like Green Hill Zone, behind, and how Sonic Superstars will now feature new levels with their own visual styles.

Traditionally, Green Hill Zone has always been present in 2D Sonic games in some way or another. Even more relatively recent titles like Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins had some interpretations of Green Hill Zone.

“In Sonic Mania, Green Hill Zone changed up a little bit,” Iizuka told IGN. “And even Sonic Origins, we did have Green Hill as part of Sonic the Hedgehog. But what we wanted to do with Sonic Superstars is really create something new and go in there and create these brand new islands that you get to explore as Sonic… We wanted to take Sonic to [the] brand new North Star Islands and have Sonic run around in this new environment. So we wanted to make brand new places for Sonic to go in this new title.”

Interestingly, this means that we also won’t see other popular levels from 2D Sonic titles returning, like Chemical Plant Zone, for example. Despite leaving the old levels behind, however, when it comes to gameplay, Iizuka says that Sonic Superstars will be a return to the roots of Sonic.

“One of the things we wanted to do is make sure we really had the roots of that classic gameplay solid,” says Iizuka. “And I’m sure the classic gameplay, you’re playing as Sonic, you jump, you go into a ball and you attack the enemies. The very first thing the team did was went and replicated that classic gameplay down very precisely. So when you’re playing Sonic Superstars, you’re going